Digital health and social services technologies raise several challenges related to their evaluation, particularly with regard to effectiveness, security, reliability and respect for privacy.
In this regard, the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) has undertaken a review of current trends to identify areas for reflection regarding the evaluation of these technologies1 and has developed a tool:
- International overview: INESSS lists the methods and criteria for evaluating digital technologies adopted by eight healthcare systems similar to those of Quebec, namely: France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Scotland, Spain-Catalonia, Australia, Belgium and Germany. INESSS provides, in particular, the regulators, evaluators and decision-makers involved with the technologies targeted and the specific features of the evaluation processes put in place. This comparative analysis highlights considerations to guide evaluating the value of digital health technologies, including the following:
- Organizational impacts: accounting for regional and institutional disparities in technological infrastructure; evaluating the effects of digital technologies on workload, the quality of interactions between stakeholders and users, and the ability of environments to absorb these transformations; and considering the buy-in of professionals and network stakeholders to digital technologies.
- Adjustment in the economic evaluation: better reflecting the full costs associated with digital technologies;
- Ethics, equity and social justice: mitigating biases introduced in databases and algorithms; exploring alternative consent models adapted to the unpredictable use of data by AI; involving ethics committees and promoting compliance with best practices and regulatory frameworks; and providing guidance for practice in the presence of AI solutions.
- Environmental considerations: developing standardized methods to measure emissions related to AI; and promoting the adoption of sustainable digital practices.
- Support tool for network stakeholders. This work inspired the development of a tool to support evaluators, innovators, facilitators and decision-makers in evaluating the issues and considerations associated with the approach to evaluating the value of digital technologies.
It will be interesting to follow the evolution of this work and the evaluation of the technologies and their impact on the acceptability of existing and future tools.
link